Some threads do melt more beautifully than others! Still curious, though--when Shakespeare is translated into another language, do they use modern French, Spanish, etc., or do they put it into French Spanish of the 1600's ?

Last edited by gingerpale on Thu Aug 31, 2006 5:57 am; edited 1 time in total

If you know a little French, you might try googling to see. However, since the translator's task is to make a text accessible to readers unable to comprehend the original, it makes sense to use contemporary language while still remaining as faithful as one can to the original. Thus, translations of Old English poetry for midwestern high school students into *The Lord of the Rings.* It's up to the translator to determine how to achieve a balance between duty to reader and to author. So there should still be poetry, double-entendres, wit, etc. 'Swounds in French, though? Maybe an equally startling but familiar exclamation, not necessarily sacrilegious.

And Griffin, the original post concerns only one line, so now harpo should have all that she desires. Your friend, by the way, is no longer in Rome, but she dropped a single petal into each of the city's fountains during her flight. Reach deep into the Bocca della Verita for a reply.

griffin darlin'....you could write a sonnet based on chocolateandzucchini

pretty please...with sugar on the top!

I've a feeling love will joyously kidnap you one day...you'll be merrily going on your way...'n then ...whamoh....got ya, love will say...

I've a feeling...a griffin such as you can't go around with this no more love business...a griffin such as you

how I cherish this forum...precious meeting of souls methinks.

Deste ~ a few words from you'n golly me...tears approach...petals in flight...happy fountains...rosepetalled

griffin did you keep copies of said wonderlanguage? ....or did you gift it to the elements?_________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

I have put two pomes in the poem of the moment thread. The second one involves chocolate and is in French... tho' not sure it's accurate French - Clotilde would know. I love the French language tho', and some of my favourite poets are Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarme and Christine de Pisan... among others!

I have a lot of poems that start... Golden god go break your bow... addressed to that meddlesome Cupid. So far I have managed to avoid his arrows, but then I am skinny so have a natural advantage!

I usually do one of two things - either I write a sonnet working it out before writing it up neatly. Or I write it up and then type it onto a Word document to save it.

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Thus, translations of Old English poetry for midwestern high school students into *The Lord of the Rings.* It's up to the translator to determine how to achieve a balance between duty to reader and to author. So there should still be poetry, double-entendres, wit, etc. 'Swounds in French, though? Maybe an equally startling but familiar exclamation, not necessarily sacrilegious.

I think Mordious and Sangdious come close to 'Swounds. They are in Cyrano de Bergerac and sound great! I did do a Chaucerian version of the Database Expertes Tale along with it's Prologue for a friend who was superb at databases and costume history! She's now the costume curator for Glasgow Museum Service and I am sure is quite brilliant. She loved the poems too.

But it's true that translations are tricky. It's not as simple as turning the words from one language into the other... er, as I once thought! _________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

Please am I getting this right--Mordious and Sangious mean sort of O death, O blood, to give the same feel as "God's wounds"--the injuries of the Crucifixion? Am I close? Wow--to translate Shakespeare--you could spend literally years on just a play or half--and I'll bet it doesn't pay well. I too used to think anybody bilingual could translate but now I'm smart ha ha.

Last edited by gingerpale on Thu Aug 31, 2006 5:58 am; edited 1 time in total

Mordious and Sangdious/Sandious have the English equivalent of 'Sdeath and 'Sblood. They are closer to Shakespeare's time I would have thought, tho' it's quite possible they were used in the 17th century.

Gingerpale, Mordious and Sangdious are old french and regional ways of saying "mort de Dieu" (God's death) and "sang de Dieu" (God's blood). It's sometimes said as "Mortbleu" (blue death), "Mortdieu". An elegant way of swearing, gone the way of the dodo !

Thank you David for this warm welcome ! The forums on C&Z are so much more interesting than those I usually read ! Being a movie fan, I am appalled by what I generally find : bad writing, horrific spelling, and, to put it mildly, almost no sign of brains ! Not that I think of myself as Nobel prize material, but I like to chat with reasonably articulate people ! And here it's a feast !

Griffin- I took a Conversational French class from a lovely Lebonnese woman a few years ago. Her idea of "conversational" was to have us read Baudelaire and Rimbaud and then converse about it.

It was the most fantastic class I've ever taken in anything.

We had a very lively discussion on whether Rimbaud was a completely selfish pr*** or a contrite victim when he bleated from prison (try to guess which side I was on...) about how sad confinement was. Of course, it was more English than French (lots of nuance there).

It was a magnificent class that the junior college near me cancelled because it wasn't "conversational" enough._________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor